I think there is a lot more of this squad still to be signed up.

Betts quote today to the effect of it being pointless signing players who are only slightly better than you have or have targetted makes me wonder.

Are they thinking that rather than throw money elsewhere that they can improve large portions of this squad if it is kept together through coaching in a full time environment and supplemented with good standard professionals.

^this!

Really not convinced myself. If anybody i was expecting Varks or maybe Tyrer or Penny, it makes me wonder how many more we will retain. 7 out of the 10 signings we have for next year are on the current 300K salary cap. Albeit they willget pay rises but not by a ridiculous amount. If we are aiming for around 22-25 players then we are going to have to anounce 7/8 established high level players or 2/3 megga signings. To attract new stronghold members we need to anounce new signings to excite people, not retain a crop of the current players from the current squad.

I'm pleased with the Haggerty signing but i am alittle worried for next year. Lets all be honest, 3/4 months ago, people were on here were struggling to name 3/4 players who we would retain in SL, it now looks like we are going to hitting double figures.

But on the other hand we STILL haven't hit the official SL approaching deadline?
Always thought we'd keep a good amount... Availability being the major reason if need be. Plus yes 3/4 months ago not many BUT 5/6 months ago you'd be keeping more after great start?

Sorry J20 i disagree. The jump from this league to SL is so big its undescribable at times. They salary cap is more than 5 times as big, its not as if we've set this league alight. However like you said the official deadline isn't until September, but i would rather sign more SL players up and announce them then than what it seems like signing what we can and announcing it because we can.

I know what your getting at mate but bare in mind excluding kids their is probably still 15 SL contracts available at Widnes next season with 10 signed!

Fair point lets just hope we have signings lined up with the same calibre of briscoe

The backs get told this week who will be staying and who will be going (that direct from a players mouth) the forwards were told last week.

From the backs i would take the below

Danny Hulme
Steve Tyrer
Chaz I'anson

Is it just me that thinks coyle is a bit of a chubster? Needs to lose some weight for sure, or at least turn some into muscle

Sorry but this 'full time training' myth that transforms ordinary players into SL standard is just that, a myth.Like Popeye taking his Spinach.Haggerty will do fine,Allen so so.But Coyle?Nah.

Your entitled to your opinion but he's played very well this year, in fact the only bad game ive seen him play was against Hunslet a couple of weeks back. He has a slightly chunky build but as with Macgraff IMO i think he will thrive in a full time environment. Defensively pretty solid and he's a tricky player for the oppo and is often very difficult to get down, his distribution could be improved but he'll have more time to concentrate on that now.

All 3 will likely be squad players anyway so I don't see why people are over reacting.

I trust Denis and Paul, Denis in particular is no mug and he knows they can handle Super League.